It is well-known that one of, if not the most important reason The Office survived for nine seasons and 200 episodes was Greg Daniels’s realization after Season One that Michael Scott needed a personality overhaul. In the truncated first season, Michael was a petty, mean bully, insecure, incompetent, and also seemed a little racist and a bit of a pervert. In other words, not the kind of lead character an audience would watch year after year. The makeover started subtly in Season Two. The employees rallying to Michael’s defense when a patron mocked him during The Dundies, his panic attack at signing the closing papers that will make him a homeowner in Office Olympics followed by Jim’s awarding of a gold medal to him for going through with the deal were modest tweaks showing Michael’s relationship with his co-workers was friendlier than initially shown and also revealed Michael’s vulnerability.
But The Client is when things kicked into overdrive. The premise is straight forward. Michael and Jan have a meeting with a representative from Lackawanna County named Christian. As Jim explains in a talking head, if Michael and Jan can get Christian to agree to make Dunder Mifflin the county’s paper supplier, it will decrease the chances the Scranton branch will be shut down. While the objective is simple, it is clear Jan and Michael view the meeting much differently. Jan wants it to be rigid and formal, held at a hotel, taking no longer than an hour, and with her doing all the talking. Michael wants the meeting to be informal, so he changes the meeting location from a hotel to a restaurant (Chilis), expects it to take a few hours, and wants equal time in the conversation, even suggesting the duo choose a signal in case the other gets in trouble (which Jan balks at).
Once Michael and Jan arrive at Chilis and the three are seated, Jan gets right down to business, barely wasting time on pleasantries before blurting out “what’s the bottom line” when asking Christian how to win his business. Michael, seeing that Jan has no feel for how sales are done and fearing the meeting will be both short and unsuccessful, interjects, bringing the business discussion to a halt by ordering an appetizer and telling an off-color joke that Christian laughs at. From there, Michael takes over fully. Jan sees him as foolish and performative, but Michael is playing a deeper game. As the evening unfolds, we see that Michael reads people well and the jokes and sing alongs are not an act of buffoonery, but of bonding.
While Jan looks on in revulsion as Michael and Christian gnaw at baby back ribs and is ready to write off the meeting as a boozy failure, Michael’s plan comes into focus. Having kept the meeting loose and friendly, Christian does not even notice the sales pitch Michael gives him. Michael knows Christian must get a good deal and that is more likely to come from a large company that can offer lower prices, so he flips the script and points out that large companies use their leverage to undercut smaller competitors, drive them out of the market, and then raise their prices. When Christian agrees with Michael’s assessment, Michael closes perfectly, casually mentioning that he grew up in Scranton and knows its people and their needs as a way of appealing to Christian’s sense of community. After all, Christian represents the county and is likely a son of Scranton himself. Christian offers his business but needs to show that he saved the county some money. By now, Jan sees what Michael has done and her role is simply to grease the wheels in corporate to make the numbers work, which she does with a broad smile, cementing the deal.
It is a compelling pitch that would have failed had Michael not spent those hours getting to know Christian and doing everything but talk business. By closing, we, the audience, internalize an important point – Michael is very good at his job. This is critical because without that base line of competence, all of the other subsequent character polishing would be irrelevant. We would always wonder, “Why is this guy the regional manager?” A question that was asked over and over again in Season One, whether it was when Michael’s behavior triggered the need for sensitivity training or putting Dwight in charge of selecting a health plan. He always seemed to be in over his head and generally disliked by his employees. Now, having watched him win this important new client, we see that he actually knows what he is doing.
And if that was not enough, the post-closing celebration where Jan and Michael kiss in the parking lot is equally important. While the two go back to Jan’s hotel room, we learn the next morning that they did not have sex, but rather, did some PG-rated making out followed by Jan unburdening herself to Michael for five hours about her divorce. This is a huge departure for him. In the Season One finale Hot Girl he aggressively hits on Katie, a pocketbook saleswoman, and she is visibly uncomfortable with his advances. Now, with his boss a little tipsy, vulnerable because of her recent separation, and buzzing from the high of closing a big sale, he is sensitive and nurturing, not lecherous and gross. It is an important pivot point in the writers’ rebranding of Michael. Going forward, his primary motivation in his intimate relationships is understood as desiring emotional connection leading to marriage and children, not casual flings, further humanizing him as someone who might act a little goofy and inappropriate sometimes, but whose heart is in the right place.
By the end of the episode, Michael’s transformation from an incompetent boss who is creepy with women to a competent boss who treats women respectfully is fully underway; no small feat to accomplish in twenty-two minutes.
Follow me on Twitter: @scarylawyerguy
No comments:
Post a Comment